Yup, last-second bidding is the way to go (for buyers).

I've only ever particpated in one auction on eBay, and won it with a carefully considered bid in the final 3 seconds (and I'm very happy that they also synchronise their time-of-day clock with a known-good reference server!).

I bid exactly the maximum I wanted to pay, which happened to be about $200 higher than what the item sold (to me) for in the end. But the final price was also about $150 higher than the previous maximum displayed bid before I hit the send key.

Had I bid earlier, the slow-but-steady crowd would likely have run the price up to way above my max bid -- better for the seller, but not for me.

cheers